Binotto realistic: "We won't be the fastest in Austria"

After the winter test in Barcelona, it looked like Mercedes and Red Bull Racing were going to compete for the world championship, while Ferrari was clearly rated as the third team. Mattia Binotto also sees that the Italian team has to work to catch up. In an interview with Marca the Italian explains the situation.

"We haven't been able to work much on the car because of the long closure of the factories, so there was no opportunity to work on the car or to work in the wind tunnel", Binotto admits. "We started working again a few days ago and we are trying to solve the weaknesses".

After three races true potential

However, Binotto expects the team to be clearly behind in Austria when the season starts. "The car is now the same as in Australia and will also be similar to the one in Austria. Developments will come later". The Italian team has a lot of work to do, so expect that the first few races will be mainly about limiting the damage.

"We probably won't be the fastest car in Austria. So we have to get as many World Championship points as possible at the beginning of the Championship and then try to react, even if there are fewer development opportunities with the new arrangements to 'freeze' parts of the car". As a result, those parts of the car should not be worked on. "We have accepted these changes because of our responsibility within F1. I think that after three races we will see the true potential of the car", concludes Binotto.